


Warmth

by PhoenixAccio



Category: Among Us (Video Game), Hunt Down The Freeman (Video Game)
Genre: Aliens, Autistic Character, Kissing, M/M, Self-Worth Issues, adam is an alien, adam is sad but like. he is killing people, adam is the imposter, adam too but hes also an alien, cold-blooded adam, i took Many liberties with what the imposters like. Are. but i dont care and u cant stop me, nick is autistic, to be fair, xenobiology (a little)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26572177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixAccio/pseuds/PhoenixAccio
Summary: Nick has never seen Adam's face. Adam is scared of how Nick will react when he does.
Relationships: Nick/Adam (Hunt Down The Freeman)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 37





	Warmth

**Author's Note:**

> two fics in one day because im gay and i said so babeyyyyy

Even now, after years of exposure closer up than most people ever got, Nick never got over the stars. He was on the ship's observation deck right now, in front of the huge bay window, looking up at the galaxies and nebulae spread in bright white and pastel multitudes, infinite against the backdrop of endless dark. Adam sat crosslegged beside Nick where he lay on the cool tile deck, Nick's helmet was off, his eyes open and dazzlingly reflecting as he spoke about pulsars and measuring light. Adam had never looked up at the stars, as long as he'd been coming here with Nick. He always said he'd had enough of stars for a lifetime. He always looked down at Nick's face instead, at the stars above them both, reflected in those soft grey eyes.

"Adam?" Nick asked, rolling his head to find the flash of Adam's eyes behind his helmet's darkened glass.

"Nick?" Adam replied coolly, grateful that, unlike humans, his smiles were not audible in his voice.

"I've..." Nick looked up at the stars again, Away from Adam. "I've never seen your face. You never take that helmet off, it can't be comfortable, can it?"

"I don't mind," Adam replied. He knew Nick hated the helmets, taking his off whenever he could get away with it, but Adam didn't really mind his. The hard shell of the spacesuits they all wore made Adam feel protected, and even though Nick already knew who _(what)_ he was, the idea of Nick seeing Adam's real face still scared him.

"You can, if you like," Nick replied easily. "I won't tell the Captain you're out of uniform."

Nick's voice is fond and teasing. He doesn't get it. Adam's heart, or what he has for a heart, gives a dizzy, smitten skip at the thought of that tone being used for him.

"That's... not really the problem," Adam said after a moment, leaning back on his arms so his thick-gloved palms pressed flat against the floor.

"What is, then?"

The warmth Adam felt now was entirely unrelated to the spacesuit helmet's stifling presence, but he chose to blame it on the thing he could control, could ignore.

"I don't look like you, Nick," Adam replied, resolutely avoiding eye contact now that the topic had shifted from the easy comfort of Nick's inpromptu astronomy lectures.

"I don't-- if someone saw me--saw my _face,_ they'd know." The rest of the sentence, the _know what a monster I am_ went unsaid. Nick knew that, he could fill in the blanks.

Pushing himself up to sit beside Adam, Nick looked at Adam, eyes soft and careful in a way something like Adam absolutely did not deserve. 

"I won't tell anyone," Nick promised at a whisper. Reassuring him. Adam felt disgusting.

"I know. I know you won't."

"What's wrong then?" Nick asked, and Adam was struck by him again, by everything about the way that Nick was. Everything about him was vulnerable, soft human skin and unprotected form, his scarf loose at the rigid collar of his suit and falling away to reveal pale, thin-skinned throat, exposed to Adam as if it was nothing, as if Nick didn't know how much Adam could hurt, or didn't care. Adam wasn't sure which option was worse. Was it better, happier, to face your doom unknowing?

"I... don't want to scare you," Adam decided. It wasn't enough, it could never be enough to express everything Nick made Adam feel, when he first found out about Adam, made that first choice not to tell.

"Adam," Nick said, name precious from his mouth. "I could never be afraid of you. I promise."

Promises, always. Nick made them so easily and Adam had no idea how Nick could know they'd be kept. He had promised not to tell, but he would have to eventually, no matter how Adam wanted to trust him nor how strongly Nick believed he could betray his species for someone (something) like Adam. When it came down to it, when it was between the two of their lives, Nick would choose his own. It would be stupid and cruel for Adam to expect anything else.

"Are you sure?" Adam asked, giving Nick an out.

"I'm sure. I trust you," Nick said then, open and easy like nothing at all, and Adam's resolution broke.

He took off his helmet, slowly, eyes closed to hold Nick's face in his mind before he had to see it react. Placing the helmet beside him, he took a breath, waited a moment for Nick to run if he wanted to, and looked.

To his surprise, Nick was still there. At first, Adam assumed Nick was frozen scared as he sat there unmoving, eyes fixed on Adam's face. Nick blinked, though, and relaxed, leaning forward to examine Adam more closely, seemingly unaffected. Adam's skin was a tough, smooth scale, and Adam felt its structure rearranging to mimic, he knew, the colour of Nick's glove where Nick's fingertips brushed his face absently, a blended patch of dark surrounded by slightly shimmering grey. He could see it reflected in Nick's eyes as Nick removed his hand and the camouflage faded, and was struck by how little he deserved to take the place of the stars Nick loved even now. Adam's mouth, grey-tongued and sharp-toothed, was open just a touch, and Nick's eyes flicked down, up, down again, before returning to meet Adam's. Adam looked away, politely, to allow Nick to examine his face unhindered by eye contact, and waited for Nick to get his fill of their inhumanity. The flipped-palette redness of Adam's sclerae bordered pupilless, reflective white discs through which his eyes absorbed light, so different from human structure the anatomical terms didn't even apply. He wasn't expecting it when Nick's forehead came to press against his, so warm against Adam's ectothermic skin as his tiny scales turned again to camouflage against Nick's touch.

Adam looked back at Nick, still shocked the latter was still there at all. A hand covered his own, electric even through two stiff layers of glove.

"Nick?" Adam asked, so quiet Nick would never have heard it were he any further away.

"You're incredible," Nick replied, and by the look in his eyes Adam would have thought he was still looking out that huge window above them both, explaining how those tiny lights were born. Adam was grateful his eyes didn't water like the humans' did. He was grateful Nick couldn't understand what Adam's species did instead.

"Nick," Adam repeated, and then Nick's soft, vulnerable, _human_ mouth was against his, and Adam said nothing else.

Nick's eyes slipped shut, and Adam's followed quickly, feeling the tap of Nick's free hand at his back despite the lack of pressure through the suit. Nick's lips were so warm compared to Adams--the heat made it hard to think. Even after spending so long around humans, there was only so much you could figure out without experiencing it yourself, so Adam allowed Nick to take the lead, copying the human's movements as the kiss deepened slightly, tilting his head as Nick did. It felt nice, Adam observed vaguely, distracted with the sensation where Nick's face touched his own. Even beyond the physical heat, the contact sent electric warmth straight through his core, sating a hunger he hadn't even known he had. Adam's unheld hand came up to hook itself around the crook of Nick's bent elbow as Adam pulled himself closer, seeking that foreign, unusual warmth of Nick's self-heating blood, as well as the warmth Nick cultivated in Adam's chest like a parasitic plant.

Too soon, far too soon, Nick pulled away for air, leaving Adam trailing after him at the loss.

"Wow," Nick said after a moment, out of breath. "Well, I guess you probably like me back then, huh?"

"Of course I like you," Adam replied after a moment, confused at the non sequitur. "You're my friend."

"No, I mean romantically. You, uh, you also want to be my... mate, or whatever your species do."

"Oh," Adam replied. He guessed he had implied that, he knew full well kissing was something human mates did together.

"Do you not want to? Shit, does kissing mean something totally different for you? I shouldn't have assumed-"

"No, uh. It was fine, I-- I liked it. It was good. I'd like to. Do it again, sometime. Maybe," Adam said awkwardly.

"Are you sure? Because you don't... sound very sure, to me." Nick looked concerned again. Adam always hated making Nick concerned, despite everything.

"No, I liked it, it was good. Just... different."

"Different?" Nick grinned playfully, then sobered, continuing before Adam could reply. "We don't have to be... mates, if you don't want to be, Adam, it's okay. We can just be friends who also kiss sometimes if that's better for you."

Nick's smile made Adam feel guilty, as usual. He thought about what Nick had said. Honestly, he couldn't say he _disliked_ the concept of being Nick's mate. Maybe in another world, where they weren't what they were, Adam would be happy to reply that yes, of course he wanted to be mates with Nick, why wouldn't he. This was not that world though, and he couldn't do that. He couldn't bind Nick to a miserable creature like himself, not when it would make that final inevitable decision that much more difficult if Nick got attatched, if he got used to having Adam around. Nick had looked so happy as they'd pulled apart, and Adam's skin hungered even now for the return of Nick's warm touch. He knew deep down that this would only make things harder, at the end, but to use the common parlance, Adam was only human.

"Friends who kiss sometimes." Adam smiled, and watched as Nick smiled back, hopeful. "I can handle that."


End file.
